This week I spent some time resting in the beautiful Dominican Republic. I feel so fortunate to have been able to get away every now and then to somewhere warm and beautiful and be surrounded by things I don’t see on a regular basis like palm trees, the ocean, and in the case of Michigan winters, the sun. My word for 2019 is renewal, ‘the repair of something worn out, run down, or broken'. I didn’t think I was really any of those things-worn out, run down, etc but after getting there, the very first night, I slept for almost 10 hours. After the first day I also noticed that my jaw didn’t hurt. This past month I had been clenching my jaw so tightly during my sleep that my mouth guard wasn’t helping that much anymore. I would wake up with pain in my jaw, have some issues with TMJ and a little headache. On vacation, I had no issues and no pain, I even forgot to wear my mouth guard the first night. There is such value in rest and play and sometimes we don’t do it or we forget and don’t ‘feel’ like we need it but it is essential to renewal. ‘Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.’~Louisa May Alcott.
Do you know the ‘worth of time?’ Many of us (me included) sometimes get caught up in the swirl of ‘I don’t have time to rest, to vacation, to stop, to...whatever.’ Sure it’s true unless of course you make time. Cancer makes you hyper aware of time but even then, sometimes it gets away from you before you realize it. No one is guaranteed more time. Rest and renewal are both essential not just for your body but for your mind. Rest to me is the white of a blank canvas. The necessary base you need for the colors to show their magnificence. Realize the worth of time. Life is your canvas.